Re: Out of Reach (News, Aug. 14)
Is home ownership really a desirable or a good thing? Years ago I gave up the prospect of ever owning a house due to the disproportionate yearly increases in values compared to stagnant income; inflation was just making it impossible.
We live in a culture that purports that home ownership is the goal of the upwardly mobile, but when you add up the costs, is it? I see home ownership as a cult. Taxes, maintenance and high monthly payments leave little for other necessities like simply enjoying life, eating well and having a peaceful, less stressful life.
When I realized I had no hope of home ownership it was like a huge weight had been removed from my shoulders.
I don’t need a house, as I have no children and don’t need a lot of space.
Yet renters (who constitute about 60 per cent of the population in Victoria) need more protection from unscrupulous landlords.
Shelter in our society should be a right, not a privilege. A content and healthy society needs the base that shelter provides, but if wages don’t keep pace with inflation, renters and homeowners alike will continue to feel the economic pinch.
Who wants the stress of being a slave to their mortgage?
It’s time those who make the rules realize that higher wages will provide more money in general to circulate and that can only help the economy and people’s well-being.
Bennett Guinn
Victoria